Flyby's Super Bowl Preview

Students gathered in the Winthrop Junior Common Room to watch Pittsburgh beat Seattle in the Super Bowl last night.

Even at a school where students watch live TV about as often as they might do reading that's marked as "optional" on a syllabus, the Super Bowl is a big event.

In a regular year, the campus seems to take a break from its general Sunday-night routine of homework and brain break to watch America's most popular television program—even if it's just for the commercials.

But expect Super Bowl XLVI to draw more interest than usual. Tonight, the New York Giants take on the New England Patriots in a rematch of the 2008 Super Bowl, when the Giants upset the Pats and handed them their only loss of the year.

Consider the fact that Boston is a sports-crazed city, the New York-Boston rivalry is among the best in sports, and seemingly half of the Harvard campus is from either Massachusetts or the Big Apple, and you're looking a showdown on the field, in the bars of the Square, on the streets, and in your JCRs.

Just as it was in 2008, this matchup shouldn't be close. The Patriots finished the regular season with a 13-3 record, earned a first-round bye, and defeated the seemingly-invincible Tim Tebow to make it to the Super Bowl. They may have gotten a little help from the Ravens kicker in the AFC Championship Game, but hey, it still counts.

The Giants? The Big Blue finished 9-7 during the regular season, which isn't even good enough to make the playoffs some years. But the Giants already beat New England on Nov. 6 and stunned the football world by taking down Green Bay on the Packers' home turf to earn a trip to Indy.

Many of the players weren't around for the last Pats-Giants Super Bowl face-off, but both of the quarterbacks were.

Tom Brady, one of the league's best passers and the heartthrob of ladies throughout New England, has already led the Patriots to three Super Bowl titles during what will be a Hall of Fame career.

Eli Manning, the little brother of Colts quarterback Payton, may not be the player that Brady is, but his resume speaks for itself. With a Super Bowl MVP award under his belt, Manning has, for the second time, led his team to the Super Bowl. But this time, he goes into the game as more than Payton's kid brother.

Flyby's prediction: Patriots 35, Giants 24.

But who knows? The last time these two teams met up, the Giants pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history. We'll see if the Manning magic lasts.

E. Benjamin Samuels is the president of The Harvard Crimson. He might want you to be aware that links to photos of Tom Brady were added by the editor of this piece, and he has in no way consented to their appearance here.